This invention relates generally to the field of letter-handling equipment and more particularly to letter-feeding equipment.
In many small offices a postal scale and a small mailing machine/postage meter are used to prepare mailpieces for mailing. In a typical operation, the user places a letter on the postal scale and then takes the letter off the scale and inserts it into the infeed nip of the mailing machine. The postage meter is set to the correct amount of postage automatically in response to weight data transmitted to the postage meter from the scale. A sensor at the infeed end of the mailing machine senses the presence of the letter. The mailing machine responds to the sensor by feeding the letter through the meter, which prints a postage indicia on the letter.
If a considerable number of letters are to be mailed at a given time, the labor involved in placing the letter on the scale and then manually feeding it into the mailing machine/postage meter may become burdensome. However, in many cases, the volume of mail does not justify acquisition of high-speed integrated mailing equipment. It would therefore be desirable to provide further automation of the process of weighing/metering mailpieces without requiring the expenditure entailed by high-speed mailing equipment.